‘We’re Getting Sympathy, Not Support’- Traders Lament Weeks After Fire Razed Shops In Abuja

Almost two months after fire destroyed the Dei-dei building materials market, victims of the tragedy are still counting their losses and finding ways to return to business.

The market was razed on May 18 during a riot but financial assistance has neither come from insurance companies nor from the office of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mohammed Bello, who promised to help the traders

An estimated N1.5 billion worth of goods and properties were said to have been destroyed in the market. Some traders who spoke to THE WHISTLER said none of the insurance companies had compensated those who insured their businesses or even visited the market to assess the damages.

Sunday Chukwu, who owned a warehouse razed in the market, said he took bank loans to stock his warehouse shortly before the fire. “The incident has affected me so much because we use bank money in running business. Some of my friends give me goods on credit as well. I don’t have any other source of income,” he told this website.

He said he had been “running around” to raise funds to start all over again after he lost N501 million to the market fire, but it hasn’t been easy. “I lost N501 million to the fire. For now, I haven’t gotten help from anyone, all I get is sympathy. ‘Take heart’, ‘Sorry’, ‘It is well’, and God will provide’ from people in diaspora and in Nigeria.”

A furniture maker who specializes in making foreign and wooden doors, Mathew Nwahiri, said he lost his machines to the fire and now work manually. He said the incident had set him backwards and now finds it difficult to feed his family.

He said, ”It has been so difficult for us, after the market fire incident life has been so hard for all of us here. If you watch around you will notice the damage caused by the fire. As you can see, we are trying to start from nothing to somewhere. Honestly, it is a very hard time for us now.

“For someone like me, I lost over N5 million, because before the fire incident I make wooden and foreign doors. The machines like electric hand cutting machine, and generator I use to power were burnt. I had about 48 wooden and 10 foreign doors. Mind you the wooden door is sold for N45, 000 each.”

For Stanley Nwakwesili, who sells log of woods, over N500,000 worth were lost in the fire. He also said the tragedy had affected his finances and had to borrow money from friends and family to start again.

“As it is, I don’t have any other source of income, except if anyone helps or any of these NGOs assist us to continue. I started the business with credit; we go and collect on credit from friends that we do buy from at least to manage life,” he lamented.

The fire also affected the interior items business of Mohammed Musa, who lost a factory worth over N35 million together with all the machines in it.

“We didn’t insure the factory because there was no sensitization about insurance. But even if the insurance people come, I won’t go for insurance because most of my colleagues that were insured are not better; the companies have not even visited to know the impact of the fire.”

He said it had been tough trying to start again. He had to borrow from friends and take credit from companies to be able to start all over again. “I can’t even explain how we are able to put things together to get the factory to this level again,” he said.